Now, Money Matters More Naturally, kids can be gullible, careless, self centered, greedy, naive, and imaginative. I used to fit some of those descriptions when I was a kid. To a certain degree, that is normal at a young age. Hence many of us did just about anything to get toys that were over advertised and given way too much hype by marketers. In a sense, we were attracted to junk. In other words, candy, junk-food, soft-drinks, and food so bad we could ring out a cup of oil from a handful it. Yet, because we were all kids at one time, we didn't look past the product to see its true value. By the time we have become adults we likely have gained countless low quality toys and various forms of low quality entertainment. Then our brains develop, and we realize what is important in life. Because of that my attitude as a consumer is somewhat different today than it was when I was a kid when you consider the importance that I once placed on buying things to make physical activities more fun, the products that I bought that appealed only to my imagination, and the fact that I didn't take money seriously. To start with, If you saw how my money disapeared after one visit to Toys-R-Us when I was a kid, you might be affraid to ever shop again. My attitude as a kid consumer was typical; hence, I placed importance on products that took imagination, on products that were related to physical activities, and I assumed that money was just for fun and not a part of survival in the real world. I used to think that products that rely on my imagination were more important. For example, I was supremely interested in Lego's since I was free to imagine anything and then build
Olson 2 it, or occasionally, just for fun, I would build something and then try to imagine what it could be which led to more ideas. Perhaps they were important in that they may have helped to encourage some of us to be what we are today since these products allowed us to imagine ourselves being in the imaginary world that we could control. For example, the miniature "Lego man" as i call him can be viewed as an invitation for me to imagine myself in a world simulated by Lego's. This is clear from the commercials. The Lego man is seen as a wealthy, patriotic, thrill-seeking man flying in space shuttles, jets, living the high-life in a large house, and getting around in a motorized boat. Because of their advertising, these Lego products seem to portray the American dream and a sense of belonging that is due to the patriotism indicated by the American flag at the house of the Lego man as seen on commercials and inside the box of Lego's. So, I asked my dad for Legos and he refused to buy them; but, I successfully convinced him to promise to buy it for me another day. These products were made to seem important by their commercials which portray a sense of belonging and patriotism. Aside from Lego's, action figures are also products that sell because of their appeal to our need for a sense of belonging. That is because many of them have an army theme or a heroic element taken from comic books or action based cartoons. The familiar GI-Joe is the best example. They are all gun toting bad-asses that I was able to get by shouting "I don't have toys!" Second, another part of my attitude as a young consumer was that I used to feel that products that served purposes related to physical activities were more important than I think they are today. I mean things that we don't need but that we very much want such as the super soaker 9000fx or other sports and athletics oriented "toys." The girls had one that you hook around the foot and it rolls in a circle as you jump over it like a jump rope. We bought these things simply
Olson 3 because they were advertised on TV. Entertainment was the most important thing to me when I was a kid. Video games and TV were most common pass-time this. TV was how I got hooked on things like Lego's and supersoakers. Last, I thought that money